Hi Gary
I live in a large house here in the south west of England and I have been using a Time Capsule as my router together with 2 Airport Extremes and 2 Airport Express’s for quite a number of years. I have reasonable wifi but not as good as I’d like it to be.
I have a 27″ iMac and I use my Time Capsule as my back up as well as using it as a router.
I would like to replace this wifi system and I would like to know the best way to do this and with what, so that I can continue using my existing Time Capsule as my back up drive using it with Time Machine.
By the way I do enjoy your website and find it extremely informative and helpful.
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Anthony Cymerman
First, since you have a stationary Mac, why use Wi-Fi for Time Machine backups? Instead, get a big USB drive for your iMac and connect it directly. You can get a much much bigger drive that way, and it will work much better than sending all of that data over Wi-Fi. Then it frees you to use any Wi-Fi solution you want. I have a 14TB USB drive attached to my Mac Pro. I think it cost me $200. Probably cheaper now.
As far as what solution to use, I can only speak to what I have tried. I am currently using a Google Nest system with a base and 2 extenders. They work like one single Wi-Fi system and better than anything else I have tried. I hear Eero is good too, but I haven't tried them. There are others like those systems as well.
Hi Gary
Thank you for your prompt reply.
From your advice I presume I can therefore use my 3TB Time Capsule as my back up drive and connect it directly if I so wish. I will follow your advice with regards to my home wifi.
Thank you once again. Keep well and safe. Anthony
Anthony: No, don't do that. (I'm not sure you can). Get a new modern USB 3 drive. Toss the old Time Capsule. The drive in there must be getting near the end of its life anyway. New USB 3 drives are cheap. Get it big. Not sure of the size of your iMac drive, but get at least 4TB or 8TB -- there is little price difference.
I’d love to understand mesh and extenders as I also am retiring my airport time capsule